Bell et al. (2007) describes members of the family:
"Morphological traits shared by these taxa include sulcate capsules, deciduous apical leaves, undulate, oblong-ovate and asymmetrical leaves with coarsely-toothed margins, and smooth leaf cells."[2]
Classification
The placement of the family has been subject to much revision. The family was first described by Wilhelm Philippe Schimper in his 1860 publication Synopsis Muscorum Europaeorum.[3] Bell et al. (2007) elevated the family to the order Aulacomniales.[2] However, the Goffinet et al. (2009) classification places the family within the Rhizogoniales.[1]
^ abGoffinet, Bernard; Shaw, A. Jonathon (2009). "Morphology and classification of the Bryophyta". Bryophyte Biology.
^ abBell, N., Quandt, D., O'Brien, T., & Newton, A. (2007). Taxonomy and Phylogeny in the Earliest Diverging Pleurocarps: Square Holes and Bifurcating Pegs. The Bryologist, 110(3), 533-560. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20110887Copy